Citizens' Assembly sessions

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Join us on our journey to become one of London’s most sustainable boroughs.

Throughout the Citizens’ Assembly process we held several ‘Show and Share’ sessions. These were open for anyone to attend to hear about what had taken place at the most recent sessions.

These were led by the facilitator from TPXImpact.

Sessions

Session 1 held 21 February

In this introductory session, Assembly Members were introduced to the citizens’ assembly and its background, purpose and goals. They discussed the high level global, national and local context for the process and started to get to know each other.
Speakers:
• Cllr Barry Rawlings, Leader of the Council
• Cllr Alan Schneiderman, Lead Member for Climate Change
• Malini Mehra, Chief executive of GLOBE International
• Adam Driscoll, Local resident and Co-chair of Council Staff Sustainability Network
• Yogita Popat, Assistant Director for Sustainability at Barnet Council

Session 2 and 3 held 5 March

In this session, Assembly Members reflected on the first meeting and the areas of interest outlined then. There was also an opportunity to connect with the youth process and emerging ideas, before an introduction to visioning through an immersive activity. In the afternoon, the Members explored the key themes of the assembly; housing and buildings, transport, sustainable consumption, natural environment and biodiversity. They considered:
• How we interact with the environment in Barnet
• How we want Barnet to prosper and flourish
• How we might need to interact differently in future
Speakers:
• Syed Ahmed, Energy for London
• Ben Samuel, Better Streets for Barnet
• Ranjit Singh, Library of Things
• Carole Wright, Community gardener in South London

Session 4 held 20 March

In this session, Assembly Members discussed the idea of fairness, equity and co-benefits to inform decision making which was used as a framework to think about how we make change happen. They then defined their vision for a more sustainable Barnet through an interactive activity.
Speakers:
• Neil Jennings, Grantham Institute for Climate Change
• Rachael Orr, Climate Outreach
• Yogita Popat, Assistant Director for Sustainability at Barnet Council

Session 5 held 29 March

In this session, Assembly Members looked back at the vision for a more sustainable Barnet developed in Session 4. They then had the opportunity to engage informally with several community initiatives in Barnet before coming up with a long list of ideas for how to address the challenges.

Session 6 held 22 APRIL 

In this session, we looked back at where we are in the journey and discussed how we will make decisions as an Assembly. We had a panel of council officers responsible for the key thematic areas and there was the opportunity to ask them questions before moving onto co-evaluating ideas and a visioning activity.

Ask Me Anything Panel: 

  • Yogita Popat, London Borough of Barnet (LBB) Assistant Director of Sustainability 
  • Cath Shaw, LBB Deputy CEO 
  • Chris Smith, LBB Assistant Director of Estates and Decarbonisation 
  • Craig Miller, LBB Director of Street Scene 
  • Katherine Carr, LBB Public Health team 
  • Matthew Gunyon, LBB Green spaces Service Manager 
  • Neeru Kareer, Assistant Service Director (Planning) 

 

Sessions 7 and 8 held 20 and 21 May

This was the final weekend of the Citizens’ Assembly and the final recommendations were drafted. During the first session, the assembly began drafting provisional recommendations. The recommendations from the Young People’s Assembly were presented. In the final session, assembly members voted on which recommendations were a priority and decided their final list of 20.

There were no external speakers at this session.